trees, craters and mullets

We've had a great last couple of days exploring Maui, its such a chilled out, friendly place. The weather, perfect beaches and aloha spirit certainly make a great start to our trip. A couple of days ago we did a coastal drive from Kahalui to somewhere on the way to Hana, its a well touted tourist route because you can stop off at various places and trek through tropical forests, view water falls and paddle in crystal clear pools. Its a really great drive along narrow bendy roads with the cliffs falling into some of the brightest, most tourquoise water I've ever seen. Mike did a great job driving the FBI-wagon along the road, I know I would be wary driving along it in my car and it's about a third the size! We did this little trail to a pretty impressive water fall (everyone loves waterfalls) and whilst it was beautiful and the forest so lucious and colourful the thing I remember the most is the smell. There were guava trees everywhere, and they were so ripe with fruit that would squish underfoot, they made the air so deliciously sweet you could almost live off it.

Yesterday we headed to Haleakala national park. Its a massive altitude crater, absolute moonscape. It's always thrilling to be above the clouds, and whilst the air is noticably thinner its so crisp and eerie fresh its really exhilerating. There are various trails, we chose one that was a bit ambitious but only about 700m change in altitude. We;ve both trekked at altitude before so we thought it would be about 3 hours in total. We got a pretty heavy health and safety debrief from a ranger, but the thin air was obvioulsy getting to me because I found everything totally giggle inducing. His advice made me change from shorts to trousers and I'm really glad. It took about 5 hours, was unbelievably hard work and totally knackering! Great scenery, volcanic geology is fasinating, all reds and black, void of greenery but stunning in its baroness. There are these cool native plants that ancient Hawaiians called greygrey as they are silvery but they has no such word as they had never seen silver before.They really stand out against the all the red.

Last night we went to an 'old school disco', there isn't much in the way of night life in this part of Maui, so we had been looking forward to it all week. It was local, cheesy fun. We had a great night dancing to Madonna and Lionel Richie with the friendly locals, even if we did feel a bit young and in need of a mullet. The cheesyness didn't really matter, it was just good to party and meet people. After Mike went to bed I hung out with Cory and his family and collegues, a great bunch of people that were born islanders who worked in the local mall, kept their emotions near the surface and were fun and welcoming. I definitly want to hang out with some more islanders before we go!

Ho'kipa 1 - Mike nil

I’m sure that there is a travellers moto regarding making the most of buffet food, and if not there should be! Expedia.com did us proud with the Maui accomodation by getting a good rate on the budget (but more than adequate) hotel, and then throwing in breakfast as well.

Sustained for the morning, we headed off to the town of Paia, home to yogis, and guru’s of a wide range of beliefs. The town is identified in the guidebooks for its quirkiness, and we both liked the ramshackle nature of the place. There is also a complete absence of chain shops and restaraunts, which is very welcome and must be practically unique in the US.

Paia is the nearest town to Ho’kipa, perhaps the best known windsurfing beach in the world.

The wind and waves looked good, and shortly after 11am a couple of very handy sailors went out. (Apparently before 11 there is no windsurfing allowed - a rule enforced very rigorously by the local surfers....)

Fortunately discretion overtook valour and I decided not to venture out. The sandy launch area is tiny, and the light winds close in to the shore made a trip to the jagged rocks look almost inevitable. I decided to head back to Kanaha for a 3+ hour session on the same kit as the day before. The wind was much the same, but the waves were just a bit lower, meaning that my sailing was a little more controlled, but still great fun.



Ho'Kipa



Please Jim, can you fix it for us to live here!

We have reached Maui, the promised land (and water) - home to the most famous windsurfing locations in the world. Geek warning - non windsurfing followers will find the next bit impossibly dull.......

The car rental company had arranged for us to have a "mid sized" car ready, but the person in front of us got there first, so we were given a Lincoln town car. This thing is huge, and is the typical all american motor, with wallowy suspension and handling to match. Needless to say it needed some accessories, so it was off to the windsurf hire shop to kit it out.

Fbi car under cover

My windsurfing brand allegiance stayed true, so I collected my kit from the Naish centre - a "Global wave" 87Litre board and 5m and 5.7m "session" sails. Sadly the godfather himself (Robby Naish) wasn't there, I imagine his wind and kitesurfing empire leaves him little time for shop work!

After a quick lunch, we headed over to Kanaha Beach park for what was supposed to be my easy introduction to Maui windsurfing. I rigged up the 5.7 in my customary "rig just a bit bigger than everyone else" mode (I have been eating holiday buffets recently), and headed out probably just a little overpowered. This place is such an amazing location, the wind is constant (ish), the water is almost bath temperature, and there is flat water around for an easy launch, but waves by the reefs if you want some jumping on the way out and wave riding on the way back in. I stayed out for a couple of hours, getting as many waves as I could, but had to come in as my fitness let me down, especially after getting a rinsing on a couple of the bigger waves. Following some of the other sailors, I reckon the biggest waves were close to logo high (2.5 - 3m approx) - which I guess is normal round here, but for a UK sarf coast sailor like myself, they are a bit of a shock. The waves also move completely unlike UK waves - when you fall in you get dragged around, where back home you mainly bob up and down.

Tropical tale pt1

10 hours to LA followed by 5 hours in a dull airport and another 6 to the island of Oahu should have been a nightmare day, but surprisingly it went by OK, with books finished and unusually edible plane food eaten. Admittedly we were a bit zombie like getting the number 19 bus from the airport to the hotel ("travellers" don't take taxis....), but the aloha spirit really does seem to work here, with helpful bus drivers telling us where we were, and a local bringing up maps on his smart phone and practically insisting on walking us to the front door - my doubts over his motives were completely unfounded.

Waikiki where we stayed is very much the tourist capital of Hawaii, with chain hotels of 40+ floors everywhere. Possibly not the Hawaii that springs to mind, but everything is so easy here, from Buffet food everywhere (when in Rome), to beach activities and shops for almost anything. The beaches, although crowded, are great and there are surfers everywhere, with 3-4 foot high, clean waves almost all the way along the sea front while we around.

Following a post travelling day relaxing , we took the bus the next morning to the other "windward" side of the island. The town of Wailea is far more relaxed and less touristy than Waikiki, and has a beach straight out of a brochure photo, with impossibly blue water and white sand.

Wailea Beach

The mountains in the middle of the island are all jagged and volcanic looking. They have very lush forests, the islands having a much higher rainful than I expected, especially in the mountain area.

10.10.10.10.10.10

Here we are in sunny Waikiki on our first day of travelling. Totally buzzing. Happy doing nothing. This photo was taken earlier at approx. 10.10.10 on 10.10.10!!

sofa protest

Less than a week to go, woo hoo! Today we took a load of furniture and stuff to sue ryder and tomorrow we're making our final trip to the dump (Mike's final time, my first and final time actually - unless I manage to get out of it). I am loving Mike being off work, but the thing is he wants to do everything now. He wants to pack the tv and sofa away tomorrow. Tomorrow?! We have 4 whole days left here. I want to enjoy our stuff whilst we can and pack everything apart from the sofa and tv until the last day. I'm gonna have a sit in and hug the tv like Homer Simpson and chain myself to the couch.

Fab Friday

On Friday we both woke up salary less, and after debating the options of a full day spent watching telly, (with maybe a short break for pizza and lager) we both realized there was stuff to do, places to go and people to see.
For me (mike) the obvious choice was a pleasant trip to the seaside.......

• Driving rain, forced along by near galeforce winds - check
• Backdrop of a scenic nuclear power station - check
• Murky brown water - check 
• Dog poo on the sand - check

Sand, pebbles and the occasional kite surfer were blown along the beach 

The wind was full on, so I met Tom at the beach and we both went for wave sailing kit (85litre and 4.5sqm for me, 91 and 4.4 to start for Tom, followed by a first blast on the new 75litre). We soon realized that we had underestimated the wind, and most of the time a 4.0 would have been better. It was a great sailing day though, and we both got some well powered jumps in and some excellent wave riding, with more than a few high speed crashes to throw into the mix.

Toms sailing has improved massively since his euro trip, and his jumping looked more confident than mine, not to mention his better fitness allowing him more sailing time. Still reckon my gybes were smoother though!

Sandblasted kit on the beach

Hastily packing up, a quick journey via the M20 and M25 (on a friday evening - yes I am joking...) took us both to the comedy night at Bracknell for a works do. Several pints and a lot of stolen chips (thanks Sherv and Natalie!) made the evening start well, and the comedy was great too. Are there limits in stand up comedy was the question many asked - I think they came quite close with the KFC gag half way through, definitely the best laugh of the evening though. Thanks to Graeme for organising an excellent evening - if he could have arranged for a fuzz free head and a sane taxi driver on the way back to collect the car the next day it would have been even better! Also, thanks to Michael for his good humour at my wayward directions when giving me a lift home.

It was so good to see so many of my colleagues at the do, its been great working with you all and I look forward to seeing you all again soon.